Guilty Crown: The Butterfly Effect
by Breath of the Wiz
Summary: "Shu Ouma, do you know of the butterfly effect?" What if? … Oh what if? My favorite question when it comes to a tale of any sort. So, let me ask you this. What if Shu Ouma was an abrasive delinquent instead of a timid loner? One small change will cascade into something else entirely as we watch Shu take his call to destiny in stride. Hare/Shu/Inori love-triangle. OOC Shu Ouma.
1. Chapter 1

AN: This story is an alternate character interpretation of sorts. Major OOCness from Shu, but that's it. Everyone else won't be very far off from their canon incarnations. I've always wondered how the first half of the series would be different if Shu was a bit less… restrained, so I'm going to try my hand at Guilty Crown. Hope you like it.

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><p>Our story begins on a city tramway. Many an average student happened to have taken this train to school one day, however, of the Tennouzu High students in this specific car, one of them was anything but average.<p>

You could tell by the fact that everyone was taking extra care to stay ten or more feet away from him, it was like they were reverse polarity magnets. When he would move, the crowd of Tennouzu students would move with him, making sure to keep their 10 feet of separation consistent.

"Shu!"

Shu's eyes swiveled from his cell phone to the direction from which his name was called.

He spoke. "Hey! Let her through."

The crowd immediately squeezed to opposite sides of the tram out of fear, the last thing they wanted to do was incur the wrath of Shu Ouma. The last guy that pissed him off ended up in the hospital and was the reason for which Shu happened to be coming to school that day.

A girl named Hare timidly walked through the parted crowd like Moses and the Red Sea. She sat down next to him and handed him a homemade bento box.

"Shu, it's been nearly a week since you came to school, don't tell me the only reason you're here is because of the soccer game yesterday."

Shu didn't even look up from his phone as he took the box. "Bingo. You know, you don't have to make food for me if I don't ask."

Hare peered at Shu's phone and judging from the texts, he was selling something to someone.

"It's fine, I like cooking… Shu, what're you doing?"

Shu smirked. "Closing a deal… but that's not important. Did you hear about the terrorist attack yesterday?"

Hare frowned at him. "Don't try to change the subject! How've you even been getting through school with us if you don't even show up? It's been a week Shu."

Shu shrugged. "I'm too busy for school anyway, the only reason I'm here is for my hearing, then, I'm goin' home."

Hare punched Shu in the shoulder, and everyone else in the tramcar recoiled in fear, anticipating a violent reaction from Ouma.

She glared at the young man. "So the _only_ reason you're here today is because you beat that guy to a pulp in the middle of the game?"

Shu dug in his ear. "The disciplinary committee wants to have an official hearing or something."

She sighed and tapped his ribs. "They say you completely destroyed the left side of his rib cage."

Shu rolled his eyes. "That guy was outta line anyways, I was just playing soccer until he decided to make it personal. It's his own fault for instigating. If they're gonna throw me off the team, I don't get why they couldn't have done it yesterday after the game, a hearing about it's just... tacked on, or… tacky… No, _gaudy_."

Before Hare could say anything else, Shu's phone started to ring. Everyone in the car went silent when they realized that the ringtone didn't seem like a great fit for the phone it came from.

Hare smiled at Shu. "I'd never have pegged you for an Egoist fan. Inori's a great singer."

Shu narrowed his eyes in exasperation when he realized who was calling him. "We all have our secrets, Hare."

Shu hit the answer button. "Yeah."

"Shu! I'm sorry but I can't be home for dinner. There's money on the table for pizza and any-"

"I'll be fine Haruka. Hare's coming over later today, she'll handle it."

"Shu… Don't have _too_ much fun with your girlfriend! I haven't changed your sheets yet! Make sure to use protec-"

Shu groaned and pressed the end call button; he was about to speak to Hare until he realized everyone was still staring at him.

Shu frowned and yelled at the gawking teenagers. "WHAT?!"

Immediately, everyone snapped back to their conversations, in the hopes that they wouldn't get their rib cages shattered too. Hare glanced around the train in bewilderment as everyone awkwardly pretended Shu didn't exist.

"Shu, would it kill you to make some friends? You know, be more… social?"

Shu looked at Hare skeptically. "I have friends! Watch this."

"HEY! I want curry bread for lunch, who wants to _treat_ me?" Shu's emphasis on 'treat' was enough to scare everybody into giving him their loose cash.

Shu counted off the money and handed some of it to Hare. "See? Friends."

Hare refused the cash and sighed. "No Shu, I mean _real_ friends."

Shu put his hands behind his head and shut his eyes. "I don't need anymore friends. I got you right?"

Hare fidgeted. "Y-yeah."

"Then that's enough for me. You're the only person I actually like."

Hare was about to talk, but her first syllable trailed off into space and she blushed a bit, luckily, Shu's eyes were closed so he didn't see her.

"Oi Hare. You're still coming over right? I need help with dinner."

Hare smiled. "Yeah, Shu. I'll help you out."

"Awesome, that woman's tryna kill me with fast food and pizza, I have no idea why she isn't fat yet. She has enough money to hire us a personal chef, yet, she doesn't."

Shu's eyes suddenly snapped open in realization. "Shit!" He jumped up and everybody in the general vicinity clamored to get away from Shu. He frantically handed Hare a flash drive.

"Give that to either Souta or Yahiro."

Shu then turned and stepped off the tram just as the door opened in a different station.

Hare ran after him. "Shu! This isn't our stop."

Shu scrunched his nose at Hare and picked her up by the shoulders. Hare took a sharp breath and blushed like a tomato at the sudden weightlessness, she never knew Shu was so… strong.

He walked Hare back into the tram car and plopped her back down in her seat, he gestured to the flash drive.

"You can come over at 7:30. There's something I gotta do." Shu turned and jogged off the train, Hare yelled after him.

"Shu! What about your hearing?"

Shu turned toward Hare as he was jogging away. "Tell'em to go fuck themselves. The team sucked anyway!"

The doors shut before Hare could get her reply out. She frowned in exasperation and yelled, even though the tram started moving again.

"Shu! I can't tell them that!"

Shu opened up his school jacket and ripped his tie off so he could move more freely. He went into a jog, by his estimate, he would make it to the warehouse in about six minutes. As he ran through the tram station, he vaulted over a turnstile, unfortunately, a police officer saw Shu do this and he attempted to block Shu's path.

"Oi gaki! Stop or I'll taze you!"

Shu disregarded the authority figure. "Uh huh."

The officer never even got his tazer out of the holster; Shu planted both his feet in the Policeman's torso and rode him down a stairway like a skateboard. People started taking their phones out to film the incedent, and some moron in the background began yelling worldstar.

When Shu and the policeman reached the bottom, Shu saw the Officer's tazer and snatched it out of the holster, it's not like the poor man could do anything about it, he was out cold.

Shu stuffed the tazer gun in his jacket so he could pawn it off later. He slowed his pace when he was clear of the tram station and approached the fence to the blockade zone. Not wanting to mess up his school clothes climbing the fence, he kicked the rusted gate lock until it broke off.

A short walk led Shu to the abandoned warehouse, _his_ abandoned warehouse. If only people would understand that, because he could hear someone inside playing his Egoist album.

Shu bursted into the room, there was a girl in there with her back to him.

"Hey! Stop messin' with my…" Shu yelled, but trailed off when the song stopped, she was singing it. She turned around and Shu nearly had a heart attack, it was Inori, in the flesh.

Shu didn't have time to process the situation at all. Mainly because an angry looking rice cooker interrupted him, at least that's what he would describe it as. It shot a wire at his left ankle; He reacted by lifting his foot a tiny bit and stomping on the tip of the wire. The rice-cooker struggled to pull the wire back, so Shu countered, grabbing and yanking the cord hard enough to send the machine flying toward him. Shu caught it, and started inspecting it, but he let go when the machine responded by electrocuting him. It appeared to shut down when it hit the floor with a loud clattering noise.

"Gah! Dammit! What the hell is that thing!?"

Inori just stared at Shu, eyeing him combatively; he took a few steps toward her, and she mirrored by sliding backward.

"That's your blood isn't it? I can-... Please don't look at me like that; I'm big fan of yours. It'd suck to know if you thought lowly of me."

She continued to give him the stink eye. "Let me put my clothes back on."

"Huh? ... Oh." It was right there that Shu noticed her lack of a top, she was almost naked and he started to gawk at her cleavage, at least until Inori pulled her side-arm.

"Turn around."

Shu put his hands up and quickly obeyed her command. "Whoa! You don't need to pull a gun on me! Fuck!"

It had been nearly a minute, and Shu could tell that Inori was having trouble. He could hear her wincing and grunting as she tried to pull the fabric over her wounds. "You should go to a hospital and get those looked at… I'm Shu Ouma by the way.

There was a long pause, and a reply. "Hello, Shu Ohma."

Shu took her reply as permission to turn around, he was a little miffed by what he saw. Inori's outfit didn't leave much to the imagination; he didn't really see why she was so intent on getting her top back on if she was essentially naked to begin with. Not that Shu was going to complain about such a thing.

Shu went and grabbed the robot that attacked him and put it down in front of Inori.

"This guy yours?"

Inori nodded and offered to take it from him, Shu almost got it into her hands when her stomach growled, loudly. Shu raised his eyebrow and retracted the robot.

"How's this Inori? I'll give this back to you if you agree to eat something."

"But I'm fine, Shu Ouma." Her sentence was punctuated by a growl in her stomach.

"Just call me Shu. Here, you can have my bento."

Inori stared at it hesitantly. "This looks homemade, it wouldn't be right for me to eat it."

Shu just shrugged. "It's okay, I'm sure she wouldn't mind."

* * *

><p>They sat there in silence as Inori shoveled the food down her throat. Shu was too busy trying to snap a good picture of her on his phone to notice that she had finished eating and was staring directly at him.<p>

"Do you want to take a picture with me, Shu Ouma?"

"Just call me Sh-… Ah whatever, yeah sure."

Inori started to crawl over to Shu, but winced, as her wounds were still fresh.

"Don't move! Let me come over there... I really should have you taken to a hospital."

"I'll be fine, come take your picture."

Shu chastised Inori as he walked over to her and sat down. "I don't think you're very in touch with your body Inori."

Inori ignored his criticism and gave the cutest smile he'd ever seen. He was about to start gawking again, but the sound of her voice snapped him back into focus. "Smile, Shu Ouma."

He was about to snap the picture when they heard a large contingent of footsteps outside the warehouse. Inori quickly grabbed her robot and pulled a vial out of it.

"Shu Ouma, I need you to do something for me."

Shu swiveled his head since the footsteps were getting louder. "Yeah, sure. What's going on?"

Inori pressed a button on her robot and a holographic display showed a destination farther into the blockade zone. "I need you to take this robot, and more importantly, the vial, to this marked location. Give them to a man named Gai."

"Seriously, what's going on Inori?"

"They're going to capture me. Can you do this in my place, Shu Ouma?"

Shu took Inori's hand. "I'm not leaving you behind, Inori."

Inori shook her head. "You have to, they won't kill me, they just want to capture me. I'll be fine."

"If 'they' are after you, take this." Shu handed her the tazer gun he'd picked up earlier.

Shu reassured her. "I was gonna pawn this thing, but you'll probably need it more than I do."

Inori took the tazer and expertly checked it for ammunition and any broken parts. She hid it in her sleeve and bowed. "Thank you, Shu Ouma. Now go, they'll kill you if they see you with me."

"Don't have to tell me twice. Wish we'd met under better circumstances Inori. Good luck."

Shu, while reluctant to leave Inori behind, wasn't keen on getting shot for _anybody. _He slipped out of a hole in the side of the building and moved toward the waypoint. Shu groaned when he realized that it was over ten miles away, it'd take him all afternoon to get there on foot.

After running for a few minutes, Shu realized that things were about to get hectic for him. "Dammit! What kinda shit have I gotten myself into? All over some chick I don't even know! Those guys looked GHQ too."

Shu was in for a long night.

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><p>If you like it, review, that way, I'll know if I should stick with this project or leave it to dust off later.<p>

AN: This is the story of Shu Ouma, the delinquent of Tennouzu High. I'm aware that this chapter is rather vanilla, but things will take a turn in a different direction soon enough. Chapter 2 coming soon.

~ Breath of the Wiz

_Signin' Off_


	2. Chapter 2

AN: It seems I've drawn some interest, So I'll stick with this as a side project from my other fic. I'm really enjoying writing this too, I think Shu would have been more interesting if he was the kinda guy who marched to the beat of his own drum. That, and his relationship with Gai will be very different from the one seen in canon material, they'll be on more equal footing in my story, with Gai serving as Shu's conscience in some cases.

_~Let's begin._

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><p>Shu cut and weaved through dilapidated buildings and over fences. The desolation and disrepair of the Blockade Zone made it possible to shave several miles off of his route to the drop point. Alternating between a jog and a walk, he began to take in the scenery as he pondered his situation. Over and over again, Shu wondered why he was sticking his neck out for someone he barely knew.<p>

Sure, Inori was great and all, and as a fan, he'd help her out any way he could, this however… was a bit much. While he was at first only mildly opposed to doing this for her, several recent events had started to change his mind for the worse. After about an hour of walking unaccosted, Shu began to hit a pocket of GHQ soldiers, likely searching for the vial Inori was carrying. Shu had come to the parking lot of a derelict shopping mall, the entire lot was littered with abandoned cars. He could see the age and solitude of the building from the outside, Shu would be in awe, but his inner 'entrepreneur' was telling him to do a bit of looting, everything in there should have been untouched since GHQ moved in right after The Lost Christmas happened.

Shu looked at the robot's GPS screen and groaned, the only way to the point was through the mall. All the other routes were blocked by rubble, so he opted to slip around the perimeter of the parking lot. There were plenty of cars off that way so he could sneak to the door unnoticed, things didn't go as planned though. He was halfway across the parking lot when his cellphone rang. Shu snatched it out of his pocket and answered.

"Shu? Wow, you actually answered your phone."

"um... _yeah. gotta go."_

"You can't just ditch your hearing!"

"_i got bigger problems at the moment."__  
><em>

"What? You should be worried about what I'm gonna do to you if I have to go to this hearing in your place!"

"_hare. i'll have to call you back."_

"Why're you whispering?"

Shu was face to face with two GHQ soldiers, both with their assault rifles trained on him.

"Uhhh. Hey guys."

"The hell're you doin' out here kid? This place is off limits."

"Just passin' through."

Shu was standing between two cars, the robot in one hand, his cell in the other, still on. Shu swallowed and wished he had the tazer he'd lifted from that cop, he looked at the robot and saw an on switch on the side, it was the same one that Inori flipped when he gave her the robot.

'Please be an on switch.'

Shu discreetly pressed the button and the robot's eye's lit up and it paused, as if waiting for something.

'COME ON, DO SOMETHING!'

One soldier called their commanding officer while the other kept his gun trained on Shu, who was about to cut his losses and surrender when the robot leaped out of his hands and slammed into the soldier's face. As he was falling to the ground in agony, he accidentally fired his gun several times, Shu could feel one of the bullets whiz just beneath his crotch and turned snow white at the close call.

The other soldier, still on the radio when his partner hit the ground, was too slow to react to the incoming wire that snatched his legs out from underneath him, he also inadvertently fired his weapon, another bullet whized past Shu, this time, just inches over his head. The robot then sent an electric current along the wire and zapped the living daylights out of the unlucky soldier. It was then that Shu let out a nervous yelp and mused to himself.

"Whoo! Holy shit I'm 2 for 2! ... Hare?"

Shu put the phone back up to his ear and listened.

"Were those gunshots?!"

"No, not real ones, I'm playing videogames."

"Shu, you don't play shooters."

Shu surveyed the parking lot and saw all of the soldiers on the area closing on his position, even the turret on the personell carrier started to swivel his way.

"Hare, I'm probably gonna be late to dinner tonight."

"What? How late? You're acting really weird Shu."

"Like tomorrow late, or next week late."

Hare started to chastize him and Shu tapped the end call button.

Shu ran over to the shuddering robot and picked it up, he flipped the off switch and took the pistols from the to incapacitated soldiers in front of him. Thinking fast, Shu leaped into a ditch and ran into the sewers, only stopping when he found a dead end, he looked around and spotted a dark corner, he sat down there and waited. It had felt like hours to Shu, he took out his phone and started playing games to pass the time. He couldn't concentrate on the game of course, but he needed some way to keep his cool and wait until the coast was clear. At least it didn't stink, no one had flushed a toilet here in years.

Too bad for Shu however, because he could hear some footsteps approaching. He shut his eyes and focused his hearing, he identified that there were three soldiers coming, and judging from the rhythm of their individual footsteps, they were carrying some kind of heavy weapons. Shu scrunched back into his dark corner and held his breath as the men started to search the area of the sewer he was in. One of them was less than three feet away from Shu, who was fully prepared to attack him and use him as a sheild while he tried to shoot the other soldiers with his pistols. The only reason he wasn't caught was because of a timely call from some commander guy, Guin or something. Shu sighed in relief when the guards stopped exploring the gutters, only seconds from discovering him.

Shu opened the robot's mouth and stuffed the vial in his breast pocket. "Really, what the hell's in this vial?"

Aware that he couldn't quite leave yet, Shu elected to stay in the gutter until the GHQ personnel carrier rounded up it's crew and left he area. By the time the whole ordeal had passed, it had been nearly two hours and the sun had already gone down by the time it was safe to leave the gutters. Crawling out of his dark hole, Shu sprinted through the mall to reach the drop point. He of course went through every cash register he saw on the way and came out with a nice little profit, as he was sure that he wouldn't be paid for his efforts, hell, he might even get a bullet between the eyes as thanks.

Shu eventually reached the drop point, curious about the time, Shu flipped his phone open and cursed, it was just past 7. He was about to call Hare again when he heard several pairs of feet behind him.

"Hey kid. Whatcha got there?"

Shu turned around, very slowly. "I dunno."

"Well look who it is! Shu Ouma, all by himself! How fortunate it is fer me that you ain't got yer crew with ya."

Shu raised his eyebrow. "Why's that? I don't need any backup to handle you scrubs."

The group of thugs encircled him while the biggest one spoke. "You remember that kid you beat down at the soccer game? That was my little brother… I'm gonna enjoy this." He cracked his knuckles.

Shu, completely unfazed by the threats began to look around out of boredom; a glint in the shadows caught his eye. Shu narrowed his eyes and was able to discern the silhouette of a man aiming a rifle. His hunch was confirmed when a laser pointer came from shadowed figure and tracked down to the back of the bald thug's knee.

'That guy must be with Inori. Well, it's worth a gamble, I can handle these goons either way.'

Shu decided to give his fellow delinquent a warning, it was the least he could do.

"See, you guys made a _crucial_ mistake in assuming that I was alone. I've got plenty of enemies, but I've also got some… dangerous friends. You take one more step toward me, it's your ass."

The big one cracked his knuckles. "Yeah, yeah, we know you can fight, but there's four of us, and one of you. We'll rip ya a new one before yer so called 'friends' get here."

Shu looked directly toward the silhouette and motioned toward the ringleader. There was a pause, and a loud swishing sound, a silenced gunshot. The thug screamed in agony as he crumbled to the ground, holding his shin, where he'd been shot.

It was then that the area they were in was lit up like a Christmas tree in the winter. The light was disorienting, so Shu narrowed his eyes to dull the pain. The thugs took aggressive stances and glared at Shu, who responded by whipping out one of his earlier 'procured' firearms.

"Don't start with us, I'm packin' heat too. Get the **_fuck_** outta here. I almost died several times today so my patience is wearing a little thin."

The thugs stared at Shu in shock and awe, they saw how fed up and adrenaline pumped he looked, so they believed him. The thugs made a run for it, leaving their friend on the ground, writhing in pain.

Shu's eye's adjusted somewhat, and he could see a man in a military uniform of some kind, his hair was rather long, and he carried himself like he owned the place. Right of the bat, Shu didn't like him one bit.

He walked over to Shu and the thug.

"You're Shu Ouma?"

"Yup."

The writhing thug butted into a conversation he wasn't part of, something he would regret. "GOD DAMMIT! You shot me you bastard! … I shoulda known, Shu Ouma runnin' with Gai Tsutsugami… why the FUCK not?"

Gai glared down at the whimpering man in disgust, crossing his arms as he chided. "Rub some dirt in it, drama queen. Those weren't even real bullets."

"FUCK YOU!"

Shu rolled his eyes and dragged the thug by the collar of his tank top. "WHA-WHAT'RE YA DOIN'? LET GO OF ME OUMA!"

Shu, needing some catharsis, retorted happily when he spotted a flight of stairs leading under the old freeway.

"Sure buddy."

Shu grunted and tossed the thug down into pitch-blackness. It was dark, so he couldn't see the bottom, but he could sure as hell hear the crunching and grunting as the nameless scrub bounced down, flight after flight. Shu couldn't see him anymore, but here was a sickening crack and a howl of pain when he reached the bottom.

"Look at it this way, you can visit your brother whenever you want now, gotta love free healthcare right?"

"AAAGH! FUCK OFF OUMA!"

"Gladly."

Gai sauntered up behind Shu, waiting for him to turn around. "I believe you have something that belongs to us."

Shu narrowed his eyes. "This rice cooker thingy? Here, whatever."

Shu handed the robot to Gai, but he didn't take it.

"Tsugumi."

A petite girl, who was probably the owner of that name, pranced over to Shu and snatched the robot.

"I'll take that! Now go home errand boy!"

Shu, more than a head taller, cocked his head to the side and gave her a fearsome glare.

"_**I'm sorry. You say somethin', shrimp? I'm having trouble hearin' ya from up here."**_

Tsugumi glared back. "Who're you callin' shrimp you... yakuza wannabe?"

Gai squeezed the bridge of his nose. "Tsugumi, please don't antagonize our courier."

She turned up her nose and took the robot to her kiosk. Gai turned back to Shu.

"There's supposed to be a girl with you, where is she?"

Shu shrugged. "She got captured by some GHQ guys, she gave me that robot and this vial before she showed me where to go."

"You abandoned her."

Shu _really _didn't like this Gai character now. "So? I'm not to keen on getting shot over, _**or**_ involved in, things I don't understand."

Gai grabbed Shu by collar of his shirt and picked him up. "No, you _**don't **_understand. I can tell by your school uniform that you've had it easy. Tennouzu high, you're a prep with no idea what goes on in this part of town."

Shu scoffed and planted one of his knees firmly into Gai's stomach and shoving him back. Gai responded by sweeping Shu's legs out from under him and pressing his boot into Shu's throat.

Shu glared up at the blonde man. "**_You don't know me_**. If I ever wanna play dress up with you and** '**_**fight the power'**, _just shoot me on the spot. Don't make assumptions about things that _**you **_don't understand. Gai." Gai reluctantly took his foot off Shu's throat and helped him up.

Shu dusted himself off and pulled the vial out. "Here's your stupid vial. I helped you, now return the favor, I need a ride home."

Gai took it from Shu and was about to say something when a nearby explosion rocked the area, the shockwave made him drop the vial, so Shu caught it before it shattered on the ground. Gai gave a sigh of relief. "Hold on to that for a minute." He swung around and motioned for Shu to follow him. Shu huffed and complied, when they reached Tsugumi's kiosk, she handed Gai a transmitter headset. When her eyes met Shu's, she stuck her tongue out at him. Without breaking stride, Shu snatched the cup of coffee she was drinking, instead of drinking it, he poured it out and tossed the mug back to her. She flipped him off in response; Shu gave her a taunting bow and continued to follow Gai.

Gai spoke into the receiver. "What the hell was that? I need a sitrep."

Shu wasn't paying attention to Gai, he could hear something getting louder, it almost sounded like a jet engine.

Tsugumi stood up from her computer and yelled to Gai. "We've got an enemy unit closing on our position!" Tsugumi pressed a button on her headset.

"Ayase! We need you to-"

_"Intercept. I got it."_

Another Endlave leaped out of nowhere and stomped on a bridge, it all came crashing down and split the field hq into two separate parts, not to mention crushing the enemy machine beneath it. Shu was trapped alone on the other side of the debris when he dived away from the falling cement.

He stood up and waited for the ringing in his ears to subside, as the sound returned to him, he could hear what Gai was saying. From the other side of the debris, Gai poked his head out and yelled.

"Shu! Get over here!"

Shu was about to move when a thunderous bang came from behind him. His head snapped around and he saw another Endlave taking potshots at the older model. It hastily snatched Gai off the ground and slid off into cover.

"Oh… this is nice."

The enemy Endlave turned its attention to Shu, and his life flashed before his eyes, everything was in slow motion, a single moment, just barely progessing on. Shu gave a defeated chuckle, and felt an impact on his chest. There was the sound of a ricochet on the pavement a few meters behind him. Shu looked down at his chest, and there was a hole the size of a basketball in it, he could feel the jet of hot air rush through his chest cavity. He suddenly couldn't feel his legs, and the next thing he knew, he was face first on the ground in a pool of his own blood. The burning sensation in his chest was accompanied by a complete inability to breathe, the blank stare on his face twitched in pain as blood leaked from his mouth.

'That hurt, a lot… God damn, is this how I kick the bucket? What a load of shit, gunned down like an animal in the middle of the blockade zone, heh, a fitting end for me I guess. I've acted no better than an animal all my life anyway. Shit, Hare's gonna throw a fit when she hears about this, Haruka too… I never should have gone to school today…'

Shu's fearful and anguished eyes glazed over, his world slowly fading to black as death's embrace finally took him.

* * *

><p>Our protagonists eyes snapped open and he coughed up some blood. His eyes immediately went down to his chest, his jacket and shirt were ruined, but he still had a ribcage… somehow. Shu noticed something odd, the back of his left hand had a strange mark on it. He also had a matching mark on his sternum, where the heavy rifle had blasted him earlier. Shu tossed off his jacket and shirt, he tried to pull up the GPS on his phone, but the thing was trashed beyond repair, he tossed that too and took a guess as to where his house would be.<p>

After selecting a direction to run, Shu took off, confused at his survival, and lack of fatigue. It was the fastest he'd ever run in his life, after sprinting for nearly two minutes, Shu started to feel his chest burn, and his heart thump. He opted to take a break for a few minutes, but the instant he slowed down, his body started to tingle, the symbols on his chest and hand began to glow, and he immediately caught his breath and felt like running a marathon again.

"I could get used to that… Hey!"

Shu's curiosity concerning his newfound stamina was cut short. He saw a bleeding Inori trying to crawl over a pile of rubble. Shu jogged over and scuttled up the crumbled cement.

"Hey! Inori!"

Shu grabbed her shoulder and she screamed, swatting at him.

"Hey hey, relax, it's me, Shu."

She looked at him for a few seconds and got a strange look on her face.

"Shu Ouma."

"Yeah… that's me… when are you gonna call me Shu, you know, like everyone else?"

"You… did the vial break on you?"

"Probably, I got shot, and there was a huge hole in my chest, but I guess _not_? … I have no idea what's going on right now."

"Then you have the King's Power."

Shu's eye twitched. "Sorry, I haven't suddenly gained the ability to control people and I've never really been too good at chess... You might be delirious from blood loss Inori, you're referencing anime."

She ignored him and gave him a pleading look. "My void, take it, Shu Ouma."

Shu's jaw dropped in sheer amazement. "Your what? Sorry, I don't do bleeding women… ever... Aren't you more worried about your open wounds?"

Inori grabbed Shu's wrist and put it on her chest, Shu, extremely confused, tried to retract his hand.

"Have you lost it?! You're injured! If you _really_ want it that bad, gimme a call when you get outta the hospi-"

Shu, having forgotten to take his hand off of Inori's breasts, was cut off when his new tattoos started glowing blue, and his hand slipped through Inori's sternum in a corona of blue light.

"Shu Ouma, use me."

"What're you talkin' about? 'Cause I think we're on different pages here."

"My void."

Inori pushed Shu's hand out of her chest, and a huge sword found it's way out of her chest cavity.

"Whoa, that's... Hey! Inori! Wake up! ... Inori!"

She appeared dead to Shu, but he didn't have time to process, as a squad of endlaves rounded the corner down the street. They pointed their guns and Shu instinctively swung the sword in front of him. He heard gunshots, but felt no pain, he opened his eyes and saw the shells clattering off of a blue rune several feet in front of him.

"Whoa."

The Endlaves stopped firing their autocannons and their shoulder plates flipped open, revealing several missles per shoulder. Shu cursed to himself and started running off to the side, he felt even lighter than before, and once he reached top speed, he jumped, no, more like flew. Shu had gone nearly thirty feet into the air, taking the missles with him, he swung his sword into place in order to block the missles, but instead of blue runes, some metal wires appeared to shoot out of his blade.

They flew through the Endlave squad like they weren't even there. A split second had passed, and they fell to pieces and exploded. It was here that Shu realized he was standing in mid air.

"Wait... I can't fly! Oh Shit! Uwaaaaah!"

Shu fell three stories and met the ground with a loud thud, which surprisingly didn't hurt at all. He stood back up and dropped the sword. He ran over to Inori, and the blade dematerialized as she woke up.

"Shu Ouma?"

"Stop calling me that! I'm taking you back to Gai before you kill yourself! I'm well within my rights t-"

Inori smiled at him and gave him a jarringly firm hug, she was much stronger than her frame suggested. "Thank you, for saving me, Shu Ouma."

She seemed so sincere that she completely sucked the steam out of Shu's rant before it even began. Shu blushed a bit and crossed his arms, trying to play off her abnormal cuteness and candor.

"You're lucky I'm a fan of yours, I'm _actually_ **not** a very nice guy."

Shu picked Inori up and she put her arms around his neck. "Shu Ouma, I'll show you the way to HQ."

"No. I'm not moving until you refer to me as Shu, _just Shu._"

Inori gave him a blank stare for about five seconds. "Well then, let me show you the way... Shu."

Shu stared down at the strange girl with an unreadable expression.

"... Yeah, you do that."

* * *

><p>AN: Thanks for reading. Next time is when things will begin to spiral off into another direction as Shu's involvement with Funeral Parlor complicates itself (let's just say he's the kind of guy that only follows people he respects, and he's a bit of a misanthrope, so getting him under your thumb is difficult). I have finals coming up, so I can't put a date on my next update. If you can't get enough, feel free to check out my other fic, it's a Naruto story and it's secured a decent following as of late. Give it a chance and I'm sure you'll like it.<p>

_Breath of the Wiz_

_~Signin' Off_


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